O-type star

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classification

Class O includes bluish white stars with surface temperatures typically of 25,000–50,000 K (although a few O-type stars with vastly greater temperatures have been described); lines of ionized helium appear in the spectra. Class B stars typically range from 10,000 K to 25,000 K and are also bluish white but show neutral helium lines. The surface temperatures of A-type stars range from...

diffuse ionized gas

...ionized hydrogen and a few other ions (N+, S+, and O++). The total power required for the ionization is amazingly large: about 15 percent of the luminosity of all O and B stars. This energy output is about equal to the total power provided by supernovae, but the latter radiate most of their energy either in nonionizing radiation or in providing kinetic...

Population I objects

Population I consists of younger stars, clusters, and associations—i.e., those that formed about 1,000,000 to 100,000,000 years ago. Certain stars, such as the very hot, blue-white O and B types (some of which are less than 1,000,000 years old), are designated as extreme Population I objects. All known Population I members occur near and in the arms of the Milky Way system and...

stellar associations

...of the fact that their constituent stars are very much brighter than the stars constituting globular clusters. The most luminous stars in stellar associations are very young stars of spectral types O and B. They have absolute luminosities as bright as any star in the Galaxy—on the order of one million times the luminosity of the Sun. Such stars have very short lifetimes, only lasting a...

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